A critique on Robespierre’s famous quote on education and tyranny.

“The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.” – Maximillian Robespierre. This quote is completely accurate in every regard, however it negates the type of education which is taught. In our society education is only taught which favors the prevailing capitalist social order. If you truly want to understand capitalism you have to read Smith, Keynes and other pro-capitalist economists. But you have to read Marx and other economists who are critical of it to get an accurate view of- and come to a rational conclusion about the nature of the capitalist system. Modern American education completely negates this, and as a result we have some 200 million people all believing the capitalism is the best system by default without actually educating themselves on the matter, people who are directly exploited and oppressed by the same tyrannical system. However, our society also founds itself on the enlightenment principle of free speech. As a result Marx- while not taught in school can easily be found in the book store or online. Marx believed that education was going to dig the grave of capitalism, and on that he is completely right. The only problem is that people can only accurately teach themselves to look at both sides of the capitalist question because the modern education system only gives one side of the argument, and thus is extremely biased. So do yourself a favor and read Smith, read Keynes. But also read Marx. As Robespierre himself said, “The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.”